The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1887-08-12
POOR PETER PATTERSON.
BY ROSE TERRY o X

BY ROSE TERRY COOKE.
From the Boston Traveller.
He was q tailorby trade. this Peter;
u tailor in the great city OF Gotham.
He left the country in his first youth,
answering an advertisement in a daily
paper, and being honest and plodding,
worked his way up till he had a bust
ness of his own, ceased to think OF lit
Tie Lydia Marsh. the sweetheart who
had never forgotten him, and became
q weiI-to-do man, with q stout. easy
going wife and a comfortable home in
an questionable quarter OF the city.
He vas a little man, with pursed-up
lips, Il short and uplifted nose, twink
ling grey eyes, small and
sagacious, and q rather we'll
worn chestnut wig, quite old
fashioned in it's long curly ends and
very marked white parting. But the
wig was a part of Peter. He would
rot have known himself or been recog-
nized by his customers in any other
head gear.
Peter vas fussy, priggish and self.
conceited, but thoroughly honest and
we'll leanins. There are very few
perfect people in this lower world, and
We might not find them comfortable
companions if there were more; human
nature is a mixture common to us all,
and to be unable to laugh at our
n~eishhors would deprive life OF much
OF its SAVIOR. Happily we are not
aware that our neighbors are laughing
at Us in the same fashion-a fact we
might not find SO pungently agreeable.
Certainly our hero never suspected
that he could be- laughed at.
In due course Of time Mrs. Peter
Patterson left her comfortable home
forever. In the twenty long years Of
her married life she had been childless,
and yet never regretted it. She had,
in her want OF other and nobler oc-
cupation, eaten too much and walk
ed too little; so n day she was
found ~lifeless on her pnrlor floor, from
an attack OF apoplexy.
Peter was sorry. He wasnot crush
ed, but decently sorry. There had
been no romance i'll his marriage. He
had proposed to his wife because she
was u quiet, domestic sort OF girl, who
would help him lay up money; ana
she married him because he asked her.
Literally this was her reason. She
had been a good. economical partner
for Peter, and when he had to break
up housekeeping and take to boarding
he felt Mrs. Patterson's loss far more
more saHory little dishes that hissoul
loved for dinner now; his favorite pud-
dinss. with Foamy sauce or fairy but
ter, were unknown at Mrs. McGuffey's
table. He had to eat the dry or reek-
ing slice Of beef. the wntery potatoes,
the tough cabbage, the bakery pies,
and make the best of them. But Gus
tom did not harden his palate or his
digestion. He lost his appetite and
set up dyspepsia. There was 40 help
Tor it; he must marry again.
Now Peter had at least $50 600
well invested, and on a lucky day was
offered $4,000 more for the stock
and custom OF his store, no longer u
mere tailor's shop but a great, prof
liable clothing establishment. He
doubted and demurrcd a good
deal; but it was now
late IN the Winter mince- pies
had set IN, poultry was tough
at the Sunday dinners that had made
one day in the week endurable to him,
and his dyspepsia ragged. Dyspepsia
is the thumb screw, the rack, the tor
ture OF the water drop, the iron boot,
all combined to q man; women can
endure q great deal better. Under
this awful dispensation Peter only
cared to get away from work and
anxiety. His deliberations ended
rapidly; he sold out his business, in
vested his money and went back to
birmingham, where he was born, to
try change OF air.
Here he endured the mild starvation
OF Il country hotel, but he could ask
Tor certain hygienic viands and get
them. Mrs. Azariah Strong, who kept
the tavern, could boil him oatmeal
and bake him Graham bread; the
milk WAS undulterated and the eggs
fresh. Peter gradually got better,
and, besides, he found his old sweet.
heart, Lydia Marsh, still alive and
unmarried.
LYDIA had grown tall, thin and grey
since he knew her; but she vas still
neck, simple, atfectionate and very
glad TO renew her acquaintance with
Peter, who had found but few whom
he T. membered left III birmingham,
ana was glad of one cordial welcome.
Now Lydia Marsh, having enough
money to live on a single women do
live j., the country, and little enough
TO do in her house, where n bound girl
and q cat constituted al the family,
had taken violently to the temperance
cnuse. 1t 10 an odd thing that almost
all the old maids and widows in a
country town do become devoted
either to the work OF temperance or
che cause of foreign missions. There
may >e plenty OF white heather at
their door; their next neighbor may
be a drunkard, and abuse his wife and
children, but these specialties do not
interest them; they lake to glittering
generalities even as ducks take to
water, and find a pleasant excitement
in figuring as officers of an organiza'
ton. The married women, with hus'
bands and children to provide for,
have "other fish to fry" and, with a
Few sad and painful exceptions, ad'
here to their womanly duties in "that
sweet, sale corne by the household
fire." made for good women.
Now Peter was dull and lonesome
in his inn, and it became a matter o.